Cleveland City Councilman Kevin Conwell, pictured at a council committee meeting in 2012, complained to council earlier this month that he was stopped by Case Western Reserve University police for "walking while black." The university has apologized for the unjustified stop. (Lynn Ischay, The Plain Dealer, File, 2012)

The inexcusable campus police stop of Cleveland City Councilman Kevin Conwell earlier this month while he walked on the Case Western Reserve University campus -- incidentally, in the ward he represents on City Council -- highlights two things:

First, that all police departments in Cuyahoga County -- from university police to RTA officers and other such departments -- need proper training on fair, unbiased policing.

And second, that that training needs to extend to police dispatchers who are essential in the communications chain from those reporting possible crimes or threats to the responding officers.

Conwell, who is black, was stopped and asked for his identification by CWRU police after a caller reported a black man with missing teeth mumbling to students on campus. The dispatcher did not tell police that the man had missing teeth, said campus police. But surely police ought to be able to tell the difference between the well-spoken Conwell, who was taking his daily walk across campus, and a mumbling vagrant.

CWRU President Barbara Snyder, who personally apologized to Conwell and also issued a statement offering apologies, is wisely insisting on better retraining of her campus police on community policing and interactions with the local neighborhood.

Cleveland recently approved a written policy on unbiased policing under its 2015 U.S. Department of Justice consent decree on police reforms and the city plans to start training officers in early summer, Greg White, Cleveland's consent decree coordinator, told the editorial board.

But such training cannot be limited to big-city police departments.

Troublingly, CWRU police have been accused of racial profiling before. In 2014, a campus police officer mistook CWRU associate professor David Miller for a black trespasser. More recently, some CWRU students have complained about poor police interactions with black students and parents on campus. It's time for this department to do a far better job.

Every police department in Cuyahoga County and beyond should undergo such training. The freedom of all law-abiding Americans, no matter their race, creed or color, to walk unmolested by police is that important.

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